Rising Damp Doesn’t Exist

On previous pages we have looked at the modern standpoint of science on rising damp, backed-up by hundreds of academic research papers, as well as by 200 years of historical records. Based on all the evidence the general consensus of science about rising damp is that it exists, it is a well-known problem which causes significant damages to old buildings.

Yet, despite all the evidence, some advocate the completely opposite view that rising damp doesn't exist. The primary source of this ideology is Peter Ward from Heritage House.

In order to understand the whole story behind this argument and put everything into context, we need to go back a few decades and look at some of the old building renovation practices and standards.

Just like many other professionals, Peter Ward also became aware that non-breathable materials and invasive renovation practices (including invasive DPC interventions) damage old buildings, so he decided to address this problem - in his own way.

However, his message is controversial as it contains two thoughts - a positive message mixed with plain technical misinformation:

• He advocates breathability and non-invasive practices in old buildings: for which he deserves credit.
• Out of thin-air he reinvents and rewrites the story of rising damp: which according to him - this natural phenomenon acknowledged worldwide - has never existed, but it's a modern-day thing, a fraud solely invented for profit. With this he makes wrong and goes against everyone on the subject - the Romans, the Victorians and all academic scientific community.

In other words, he perverts the subject of rising damp so he can jump in and present his "solution" to this problem. He self-declares rising damp a fraud to give his actions an appearance of "legitimacy". 

His solution consists of some of the following actions:

• Launches a global misinformation campaign on the subject of rising damp, describing it as an imaginary fraudulent thing. This has been ongoing for over 10 years now.
• By positioning rising damp as something fraudulent, he calls any company or individual connected to it also a con or fraud, which he can freely attack.
• He attacks the "damp proofing industry": the PCA, various damp proofing companies and individuals. 
• He goes to great lengths to discredit all damp proofing solutions in front of old building owners, self-proclaiming himself as the top independent expert on the matter.

But he does not stop here. 

• He also conducts smear campaigns against reputable professional (e.g. the RICS) and heritage organizations (e.g. the SPAB), their directors and members, just because they have a different view on rising damp. He publicly labels such professionals incompetents and fraudsters.
• He creates distrust and lack of cooperation in professional circles by antagonizing the conservation and damp proofing industry sectors against each other, hindering communication and cooperation.
• He launches concerted misinformation campaigns against anyone he has a grudge against or considers a threat. He doesn't hesitate to invent stories out of thin air to publicly discredit his perceived opponents.
• He never responds to any requests for clarification, dialogue or professional debate. He does not communicate only monologizes his fixed ideas.

Some of these actions are documented below. 

Click on the titles below to expand more information.

His actions have created significant confusion in the industry and an unsafe environment where architects and other professionals have to be careful about their views on rising damp in order not to become his next target, being harassed  or publicly ridiculed for their views.

In closing, here is our experience and story with Peter Ward.

Operating in the same business segment, we became Peter Ward's target unknowingly, without ever crossing paths or interacting with him beforehand.

How it all started? He picked the fight with us by publishing an online article calling us frauds. We tried to contact him to discuss the matter, no response. Then one of our directors went to him, introduced himself, had a chat and we agreed to do a technical trial project in his damp basement so he can assess the results of our DPC technology first-hand. He agreed to it, we shook hands, then he turned on us. Six months later when technical measurements were due and we contacted him to book a follow-up visit, he was very unfriendly and made it clear that he doesn’t want us to go back ever for progress checks. At that point we realized (too late in the game) that he never had anything to gain from this trial, but everything to lose. The success of the trial project would make him lose professional credibility on at least two fronts:

1. On the fact that our DPC technology he tried to discredit so badly, works
2. Rising damp exists and something can be done about it

From that point on he could not be contacted anymore. Shortly thereafter he disassembled the trial unit we installed in his cellar, publishing a negative review about how it didn't work.

Since then he kept embellishing his story. He kept writing new articles about us, inventing bogus cases studies with fictitious dissatisfied clients, shamelessly twisting the facts to discredit us.

In response to his misinformation campaigns, please see below some clarifications on some key points.

Pretty much all of Peter Ward's libellous statements about Core Conservation are because of our past involvement with the Austrian firm Aquapol. We are bad because we don't share his views on rising damp.

Here is the real story.

Many years ago, between 2014 and 2018 we have been the official UK distributor of the Austrian “Aquapol” firm. Aquapol company has been pioneering since the 1980s a proprietary non-invasive technology against rising damp. Their technology has been installed in over 40,000 building worldwide, and as far as customers and their buildings were concerned, it was a success.

After 35 years of existence, in 2019 the Austrian parent company went into administration due to ongoing legal problems, which were unknown to us until the very end. The problems were caused by the official working theory of the Aquapol technology. The owner of the company, Mr. Mohorn claimed that his technology is using a new form of energy, discovered by him. However, his claims and explanations were not in agreement with known laws of Physics – his explanations initially raising questions, then leading to scepticism, finally culminating in legal problems.

Additionally, as soon as we became aware of the extent of Aquapol’s legal problems, in 2018 we promptly terminated our distributor agreement. However, we still provide technical support to all Aquapol systems installed by us in the UK.

In a nutshell, that has been all our involvement with the Aquapol company. 

Because Peter Ward over the years has been constantly denigrating other companies and individuals he regarded as competitors – including us and several others – we filed a legal complaint against him and his company "Campylite Investments Ltd" trading as Heritage House Consulting.

After a lengthy investigation by the ASA’s legal team, cross-checking all evidences from both sides, the ASA upheld our complaint, ruling the following:

You can read the original ruling on the ASA’s web site here:
https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/campylite-investments-ltd-a19-1042985-campylite-investments-ltd.html

In Sept 2020, during the ASA's ongoing investigation, Peter Ward publicly lied about the outcome of the investigation.

No, the ASA did not apologise to him, but after concluding their investigations they have ruled against him.

Although it was a somewhat stressful experience, we came out of it much stronger than we went in and Peter Ward's free "promotional campaign" resulted in multiple benefits.

His rant generated us a tremendous amount of online exposure - lots of free advertising. Many people who read both sides of the story decided to do business with us.

These attacks also made us realize the amount of misinformation that exists on the subject rising damp in the UK. This prompted us to start an in-house research project. As a result of that a lot of technical data came to light, giving us a much deeper understanding on the movement of moisture and what drives it. The whole topic of dampness is now getting simpler and simpler, an indication that we are on the right track.

Unlike Peter Ward who just tosses out authoritarian statements, all our data and knowledge is backed up by thorough technical research. We use cutting edge technical research equipment that can measure and track up tens of parameters of a wall including temperature, humidity, pressure, electrical parameters from virtually anywhere in the walls or the environment - from the surface, depth, under the render, air, timber etc. - all in real time.

Some of the sensors we use are assembled by us in-house as commercially available sensors have too many trade-offs - too bulky, too expensive or they lack accuracy - and thus not fit for our purposes.

The initial research developed into a formal PhD program in Architectural Conservation, researching a very timely and interesting aspect of building conservation: the effects of electromagnetic climate change (increasing telecommunication fields such as 4G, 5G etc.) as well as the impact of Earth’s geo-magnetic fields on moisture movement in the capillaries of old buildings.

Our paper published at the 2021 London International Conference on Architectural Conservation organized by the "World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology" (WASET) has won the Best Research Paper Award in Architectural Conservation. 

Our holistic approach and building-friendly solutions are recognized by the industry, resulting in numerous industry awards.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, we are always happy to help.